Tag: gate

#365daysofbiking Animal magic

July 21st – It hadn’t promised to be a ride day at all, so I didn’t have high hopes for the ride at all. It was fantastic, if weary, as it happened, and it was all about the animals I met on the way.

From the two wee dogs in chokey and the ferrets at the Barton gate Steam Fair to the herd of curious cows at Dunstall, animals stole the show all through the ride.

Most interesting was the long range shot of the red deer at Dunstall Park – a farmed herd – the majestic stag of which turned out to be providing perch for two magpies, presumably assisting his grooming.

I’ve seen small birds do that with pigs before, but never magpies on deer…

A great ride. And oh, those coos!

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#365daysofbiking So glad I made it

July 21st – it really wasn’t my weekend and I was called out to a work emergency in the early hours. I had hoped to get to Barton Gate Steam Rally near Burton, but with a 3pm work finish it looked unlikely.

Due to a lift from my partner and some very sharp thinking on her part, I was deposited bike and all in Kings Bromley and managed to catch the atmosphere for the last hour, which was wonderful. I then enjoyed a lovely summer evening ride.

The help of others is so wonderful and I’m very grateful. I was tired, but needed some headspace and the joy of daft machinery.

I have no idea why the machine on the trailer with crawler tracks is, but I want one.

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#365daysofbiking Bees do it

 

May 31st – Spotted purely by chance negotiating the new gate off the canal at Chase Road, Brownhills, a pair of bees apparently mating.

I did wonder at their size and apparerntly different species but no, they are most likely tree bumblebees making more tree bumblebees, bless them.

I left them in peace, the bees need all the chance to multipoly they can get.

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August 3rd – A tiring, heavy day at work followed by a call in south Birmingham saw me labouring up the Chester Road from Four Oaks station, headed for Burntwood for a family thing.

The sun had gone in for a bit, but the almost oppressive heat has returned. It’s as dry as old bones once more, but it’s different now; last time it was sunny, and baking – this is more of a dark, claustrophobic heat.

I still adore it though. Stood at the edge of a wheat field on the Chester Road under Castle Hill – one of the last few waiting for harvest locally – I looked up to the hamlet of Castle Gate, and over to Lazy Hill and the dramatic sky.

Only in the hottest, driest, sunniest summer for decades could my family have an outdoor get together and manage to get a dull, overcast day for it.

Such is life!

October 25th – Passing New Barns Farm at Footherley, I stopped to greet some cows waiting at the gate to go off for milking.

I love these huge,, but gently nosey animals. I noticed they were all wearing radio tags so the milking equipment could trace their statistic and wellbeing. Farming’s come a long way technologically in the last decade or so.

Always nice to say hello to the coos.

February 26th – In Birmingham at twilight, I was without any kind of tripod, so practiced a steady hand. I used to pass through Colmore a lot, but in recent years barely at all. When I was here a lot, there was a Somerfield where the Costa is, the Waitrose hadn’t been built and the Sainsbury’s was a Marks and Spencer. It was never this handsome at dusk, either; several of the office blocks here are relatively new.

Like Walsall, Birmingham is not mine anymore; places I was familiar with, things I remember, bars, cafes and shops I haunted long gone. Yet I still feel at home here. 

Unlike Walsall, change has always been Birmingham’s modus operandi. And it’s getting better and better at it.

September 30th – These guys crease me up. Often on my way home, I cycle down Four Crosses Road in Shelfield. A garden there backs onto the footpath, and these three tiny little dogs have the run of the yard.

When I go past, they always go bananas. Ferociously yapping, growling and snapping, they appear to loathe my very soul.

I’m convinced that if they could get out, they’d have a really good go at savaging me. But not one of them is larger than your average cat.

I think they imagine they’re actually wolves…

August 15th – Climbing the hill from Stonnall, I passed the entry to Shire Oak Park. There was once a gate here that either got broken or stolen, I’m unclear of the exact detail. For over 12 months now, the gate has been replaced by a variety of hastily-nailed planks, torn down once to enable access for flytipping.

Now, the gate has been replaced by two removable steel bollards. 

They don’t look terribly beefy to me. But time will tell. I can’t quite get my head around how long this has taken to sort out.

March 30th – The vehicle entrance to Shire Oak Park – which was formerly the main access to the quarry, and the route used by rangers to get into the lower are of the reserve – had the gate damaged and/or stolen about 12 months ago. It was never replaced by Waslall Council’s Greenspaces team, instead being haphazardly blocked with three light planks nailed between the gateposts.

A couple of weeks ago, the one remaining plank was smashed by a truck reversing through it, which then proceeded to flytip a large quantity of refuse.

This is the state of the ‘repair’, one good tug and those planks will be off. The previous, broken one still lies cast asunder in the ditch by the fence.

I support the Greenspaces team and have fought their corner many times. But come on, this is piss-poor.

This really needs sorting properly. If it had been fixed properly previously, the council probably wouldn’t have had to pay for the rubbish removal of the previous week, either.